The Supreme Court has annulled the exclusion of bullfighting shows from the catalog of the 2022 youth cultural voucher, of 400 euros, due to the lack of justification from the Government.
The Contentious-Administrative Chamber has upheld the appeal of the Toro de Lidia Foundation against the royal decree establishing the regulation of the cultural bonus and annuls the expression “and bullfights” of article 8.2. that sets the excluded activities.
The Chamber explains that there are no reasons to explain the exclusion and that “they do not seem valid to this effect those offered by its preamble since it only says that bullfighting is promoted through other instruments and that each Administration has the capacity to freely decide the sectors or activities of public interest or utility that it promotes and in what way it does so.
For the Supreme Court, these generic explanations, however, are “insufficient” when there are specific legal provisions that impose the obligation on public authorities to act positively in a certain area, such as bullfighting.
The State Advocacy defended that the General State Administration does comply with its obligation to promote Bullfighting, as evidenced by initiatives such as the annual National Bullfighting Prize of 30,000 euros, the 35,000 euro grant to the recurring Foundation or the project Bull Cultures.
But the Chamber responds that these arguments do not seem to them, however, “to help to correct the lack of justification for the exclusion for the simple reason that they are punctual».
On the other hand, it stresses that “the one consisting of the youth cultural bonus has a general projection and, in addition, can be considered qualified as it is addressed to a new generation, that is, looks to the future represented by young people -according to the Council of State, almost 500,000- a perspective that is fundamental when it comes to the conservation and promotion of cultural heritage».
“There is not, therefore, between the actions outlined and the youth cultural bonus, which entails 210 million euros, the necessary proportion to conclude that bullfighting is given a balanced treatment with the significance that it has recognized by the legislator,” adds the Supreme.
Legal sources report that this decision does not mean that the bulls are already included in the cultural bonus, since the Executive can now justify the exclusion in a more solid way.
